Who can say for certain
Maybe you’re still here
I feel you all around me
Your memory’s so clear

Deep in the stillness
I can hear you speak
You’re still an inspiration
Can it be
That you are my
Forever love
And you are watching over me from up above

Fly me up to where you are
Beyond the distant star
I wish upon tonight
To see you smile
If only for awhile to know you’re there
A breath away’s not far
To where you are

Are you gently sleeping
Here inside my dream
And isn’t faith believing
All power can’t be seen

As my heart holds you
Just one beat away
I cherish all you gave me everyday
‘Cause you are my
Forever love
Watching me from up above

And I believe
That angels breathe
And that love will live on and never leave

Fly me up
To where you are
Beyond the distant star
I wish upon tonight
To see you smile
If only for a while
To know you’re there
A breath away’s not far
To where you are

I know you’re there
A breath away’s not far
To where you are

I attended a weeks mediumship course at the Arthur Findlay College in Stansted several years ago with my friend Trudie. As always it had been an emotional time with most of us receiving wonderful messages from our loved ones in spirit, and most of us also giving messages to other students. Being a medium and giving such messages can be quite overwhelming at times when you know the impact that it may have on the recipient.

It had been a fantastic time where we had all moved forward leaps and bounds, both in our links with spirit and in our confidence in feeling at ease enough to stand and give demonstrations to an audience of other students, who are normally our harshest critics!

My tutor that particular week was the very wonderful Janet Parker. She is an extremely spiritual woman and whenever I have been blessed with being in her class I have always felt that she gives each and every one of her students as much support as possible. I don’t think many people appreciate the challenges that we mediums put ourselves through when we attend these courses. It is not as if you can revise to ensure that you manage to maintain a link with spirit, or that you can practise on your own, or that you can read manuals. It really is just a case of putting yourself forward to serve spirit in the best possible way you can. It is a case of learning to allow your mind to become still so that you can connect to spirit without all the day-to-day activities, planning, worries, and the general hum drum taking over your thoughts. You have to be totally trusting when you open your awareness to make contact with spirit. Sometimes you may hear spirit, or feel them, or see visions in your mind’s eye, and you have to give the information you are given without adding your own thoughts or ideas. It is quite a discipline to learn. It is not until you try to do this for hours on end that you realise how difficult it can be to overcome all the nagging thoughts that suddenly rush into your head and scream to be heard!

Being in such a spiritual environment does seem to bring out the very best in my mediumship. I am sure that spirits are drawn to the place like moths around a light bulb. There is never a shortage of loved ones who are trying to get their messages conveyed through the students and it really does make the courses so worthwhile. The tutors guide you gently towards achieving the very best mediumship you can manage and offer tips and ideas to ensure that you develop to your highest potential.

This particular week was very special as on the very first night I had received the most exact and evidential messages from both my parents through one of the tutors and then also throughout the week from several of the students. I had been going through a very tough time in my personal life and really felt the messages that I was fortunate enough to receive showed that I still had my parents around me, still loving me and supporting me and offering their advise. Each reading I had received had contained different evidence that no-one there could have possibly known. I felt incredibly blessed.

As the week came to a close I felt sad that I would be leaving. Not only would I miss the teachings and the practising of my mediumship, but I knew it was unlikely that I would be in a position to receive any further communications from my parents for quite some while. Janet, and Paul Jacobs, another tutor, had organised a closing ceremony in The Sanctuary, a beautiful church attached to the college where spiritual services are held on a regular basis. It has a fantastic uplifting atmosphere and I’ve always loved being there, you can almost feel arms wrapped around you as you walk in. They told us that we weren’t allowed to attend until 8pm as they had some preparations to complete. Trudie and I hadn’t really given the evening too much thought as most final evenings are nice, but not anything out of the ordinary.

When we walked into the Sanctuary, just after 8pm, we were greeted by the most wonderful vision of beautiful materials and oriental rugs laid on the floor running down the centre of the church. Incense sticks were burning and candles flickered in the darkness. Hundreds of small unlit tealight candles had been placed on the materials and chairs were placed either side running the length of the Sanctuary. There was a hush of anticipation as we students all filed in quietly, taking our seats whilst gentle music was playing.

Trudie and I sat next to each other about midway down the room. Janet and Paul both gave a talk about the week we had just experienced and thanked spirit for their participation in our teachings. Janet then instructed the students sitting at the end of the rows to light a candle for each loved one they had in spirit, then the lighter was to be passed to the next student, then the next etc. By the time it came to Trudie and I most of the candles were already lit and the Sanctuary looked absolutely amazing. I lit candles for my Mum, for my Dad, for my brother, for my friend Janet, and not wishing to look greedy, lit another jointly for all my aunts. uncles and grandparents in spirit. Trudie too lit candles for those she had loved and lost, including her cousin Robert whom she missed so much.

When all the candles were lit Janet asked us to close our eyes. She asked us to give thanks to our guides and loved ones for helping us through the week and for allowing us to experience the love from spirit that we had all shared. Whilst our eyes were closed, and we were sitting in the candle light, Janet put on the music, To Where You Are, performed by Josh Groban. I had never heard this before and was lost in the beautiful words that meant so much to me. I couldn’t help but start crying, both because of the joy of knowing my loved ones were so close and also because of the pain and loss at realising that I can’t always reach out and touch them, speak to them, or hold them as I once did. I felt around in my pocket for a tissue and all I had was an old crumpled one. I thought it would have to do, and then I realised Trudie was crying too, she whispered to me “Do you have a tissue?”, I only had the one, so I tore it in half, and there we were, the two of us, holding hands and using half a tissue each to mop our tears.

Whenever I listen to this beautiful song, as I often do, I am taken straight back to the Sanctuary, to the love and connection I felt with spirit, to the knowledge that I know how very fortunate I am to have my loved ones in spirit still so close to me …. and then, when the emotion becomes almost just too much to bear …. to the old crumpled tissue that my friend Trudie and I shared!

My Dad was a research scientific glassblower. He had trained after he returned from serving in the war and after many years as an apprentice went to work for an oil company in their refinery.

As a young girl I was mesmerised when I would spend hours with Dad in the garden shed as he made all different objects in glass. He would normally be making atomisers by the dozen, something he did to help pay for the very old car he and Mum had managed to buy. It was always going wrong and to pay all the garage bills Dad would take on extra work in the evenings and on weekends.

In his shed he had shelves filled with glass of all different colours and would make small ornaments for us. He’d ask us what we’d want and we’d excitedly shout out cat or dog or horse and within minutes the glass would be transformed into funny little characters. Even with his large hands Dad would craft the most beautiful intricate glass furniture for our dolls house and tiny glass coat hangers for our dolls clothes. It was always like magic to me, watching him heat the glass in the flame and then with various tools he would pull it into different shapes, sometimes blowing into it at the same time. It was wonderful and I loved our time together in the shed and the strange smell that only a glass blowing room has. For fun, Dad would blow very fine glass bubbles, they would waft up into the air and were so fragile that you could put your fingers through them and they would virtually disappear. Dad made beautiful gifts for friends and relatives and everyone would be in awe that he had made them in the shed. If he had not had the responsibility of a family and the need for a regular income I am sure he would have preferred to spend his time creatively rather than working with all the technical glass blowing at the refinery.

When I attended a spiritualist church in London many years later, there was a young man, Martin, giving his very first inspired talk. You could tell he was extremely nervous and I had even seen him pacing up and down in the hallway before he had to take his place on the platform. He needn’t have worried at all as his talk was very good. You could tell that the congregation was hanging on his every word and you could have heard a pin drop.

I noticed his aura expanding whilst he spoke and could see a vague outline of what appeared to be someone standing to the right side of him. I turned around and looked behind me to see if it could be a shadow or a play of the light, but everyone was sitting down and there were no obvious light sources. The medium on the platform was sitting to the left of Martin so I couldn’t see where this could be coming from. As he continued speaking I noticed an odd movement to the right hand side of him. There was a white-painted handrail with railings beneath which ran along the length of the platform and Martin was standing behind them and occasionally leaning on them. To my absolute amazement I could see the outline of someone leaning on the rail far to the right, and the more I looked the more form the shape took. Eventually I could see it was a man, a little taller than Martin, and surprisingly, he looked as if he was made of the glass bubbles that my Dad used to make. He was shiny and transparent! It seemed an age that he was there, leaning on the handrail looking at everyone. I kept blinking to clear my vision because I just couldn’t really believe what I was seeing. When Martin sat down the man was no longer visible and the service went on as normal. However, when Martin stood again to say the closing prayer I could clearly see the man again. It was an experience that I know I will never forget. I spoke to Martin afterwards and asked him if he was aware of anyone standing near him but he said he wasn’t. I did very much feel that this may have been a spirit who was there to assist him.

As time went on, and as I saw various mediums working, I began to see more and more outlines on walls behind them which would gradually form into ‘glass’ people. Often it would be quite vague but sometimes I could make out distinct features, even clothes that were being worn and very often the medium would then give that as a description of the spirit communicator.

When I had been away from my mediumship for several years it appeared that this ‘gift’ of seeing spirit on walls or ‘glass’ people had all but disappeared. I was chatting to some friends last summer and saying what a great shame that was. Then, much to my surprise, when I attended a local spiritual workshop I was sitting watching another medium demonstrate when I began to see the familiar outline slowly appearing on the wall behind her. I was thrilled! As we worked that day the visions became clearer until I could actually use the vision as the basis for one of my readings when I was called to stand up and demonstrate. I saw a ‘glass’ man leaning on a very old country gate and could see the countryside around him. Strangely I was also shown the most massive womans breast, which took up most of the wall, and I knew that he was connected to someone who had breast cancer. I was fortunate enough to be told his name, which is something I always ask for but don’t always get. I described him and the connection to the breast cancer and gave his name and immediately a woman could accept him and my communication with him strengthened. I was so grateful that I was able to give the recipient a good message from her loved one.

I often think of the ‘glass’ people I have seen and having spoken to several other mediums it does seem quite rare and I do wonder if watching my Dad making his glass bubbles all those years ago somehow stirred that gift in me. Thanks Dad!

Simon and I went down to North Devon a couple of weekends ago. I used to live there and sometimes feel a real longing to drive along familiar country roads and walk along a typical sandy Devon beach and feel the fresh sea air on my face. I have a friend who lives just outside Barnstaple, Susan Roberts, I have mentioned her in my blogs before. She set up and runs the English Psychic Company, and she was my first real teacher of mediumship. She ran a tight ship and accepted nothing but the best. My evenings in her classes were a mixture of trepidation and relief. She set such high standards and expected nothing less of us, her pupils. She wouldn’t even accept you on a course until you had passed a test to prove that you had some potential, and that was nerve-wracking in itself.

I first met Susan after my Mum had died and I had heard her (Mum, not Susan!) talking to me in the loo, always late at night. The first time it happened I thought it was my imagination, but immediately as I thought that Mum told me it wasn’t. I came out of the loo and didn’t tell anyone what had just happened as I was sure they would think I was crazy. The following night, just before bed, again in the loo, Mum talked to me again, I told her that I was sure she was a wishful thought and again she told me she wasn’t. Well if you are real, I said, make the lights go on and off. To my utter amazement, the lights flickered! You have never seen anyone move so fast out of the loo! This happened for several nights. Nothing at all in the daytime, but come my last visit to the loo, there would be Mum. I didn’t see her, but I could feel her presence, her warmth and love, and I could hear her voice, definitely hers, not mine, but inside my head.

During the day I was so sad, missing my Mum so much, but feeling quite mixed up knowing that in the evening there would be this very odd form of contact. I tried to reason with myself that the whole thing was just too bizarre and to be honest I often felt that I was losing the plot. It was a secret I kept to myself. Part of me dreaded going to the loo because I was quite afraid, but another part would be looking forward to the comfort that I felt every night knowing that Mum was ok and was still around.

After a week or so I decided I really should do something about all of this. Ever since I was a very young child I had been aware of spirits, of energies around me, of knowledge that from my earthly life I shouldn’t’ or couldn’t have known, but this was very different, I had never had an ongoing communication with someone who I had known and loved before.

I had met a spiritual healer, Liz Gilmour, at a local spiritual fayre a couple of years before and had kept her business card in my purse. I felt sure that she would know of someone locally I could go and see to try to find out what was going on. I rang Liz and without telling her any information at all I asked if she knew of anyone who could communicate with spirits. Without hesitation she recommended Susan Roberts. She told me that Susan had an excellent reputation and was very down to earth. I rang Susan straight away and made an appointment which was for a week later. She asked me to bring along a photo of the person I would ideally like to get in contact with, but she said she couldn’t always guarantee that that person may communicate. Apart from that she didn’t ask me anything else at all. Part of me was so excited to be seeing a professional medium and the other part was absolutely terrified. I had no idea what to expect and kept feeling the biggest butterflies in my tummy every time I thought about it.

Eventually the day of the reading arrived and with an enormous amount of trepidation I went along to see Susan. It was such a relief to be welcomed by a ‘normal’ woman who immediately put me at my ease. She showed me into her sitting room which spookily overlooked a graveyard, I remember thinking how funny that was. I showed her the photo I had taken along and straight away Susan told me it was a photo of my Mum who had died three weeks before, She told me about Mum’s illness and how she had died. Then, much to my amazement, and laughing as she told me, she said that Mum had been talking me in the loo! Everything Susan told me was absolutely accurate. I skipped out of her house and driving home felt so uplifted and positive totally knowing that my Mum had been chatting to me.

I had no idea at the time that I would again be in contact with Susan within a few weeks. My brother Ray died totally unexpectedly just six weeks after my Mum. He was only fifty and was found in his bed at home. At the time we had no idea how he had died or what was the cause of his death. I spoke to Susan just days after Ray died, as again I was sure I could feel him close to me. She gently started to explain that it was most probably too early for him to be able to make contact, but as she spoke I could sense her hesitating. She asked if a red tricycle meant anything to me. It certainly did. As I said yes she started receiving more evidence from Ray. She told me exactly how he had died and most importantly for me, that he had felt no pain. She told me that his heart had literally just stopped. That he was here one minute and gone the next. Just like that. No pain at all. I was so relieved as I had been concerned that he would have been distressed. Sure enough when we received the results of his autopsy it confirmed that his heart had just stopped and that his passing to spirit would have been instant.

Over the years I have been fortunate to have met several wonderful mediums who have given me the most fantastic evidence and messages from those I have lost. I do think that if I hadn’t met Susan at such a difficult time in my life I would have been very doubtful, but she was so accurate with everything she said that she gave me confidence to explore the amazing world of spirit both as a medium myself, being able to give comfort to those missing their loved ones, and as someone myself so pleased to hear from those I love who are in spirit.

I have absolute confidence in Susan and when she told me that over the years she had been contacted by several spirits who wanted their experiences of death heard by a wider audience, I could appreciate why they had chosen her to tell their stories. She had written their stories exactly as she heard them, and over a long period had built up quite a selection. Spirits contacted her from all walks of life with very different stories to tell. She decided to bring the stories to the stage and called the production The Afterlife Monologues. Several of her students took the roles of the spirits and spoke in the first person, recounting their memories. I was intrigued and was so sad when I was unable to attend the first time it was on at a theatre in Devon. It was by pure chance just a couple of months ago that I asked Susan is she was thinking of putting on another production. She said that one was planned for the end of March. That was wonderful news! I could go and walk along the beach, see some old friends, and go and see the Afterlife Monologues all within a long weekend. I booked the hotel straight away and Simon booked the time off work. We were so lucky with the weather. Our journey from our home in Hampshire was just beautiful. We stopped by a field of new-born lambs, watching them running and playing, then found a country pub where we enjoyed a fantastic lunch on a sunny roof terrace. It couldn’t have been better.

We met Susan at her premises and sat near the back so that we could see everything. The stories from the spirits were just incredible, The readers were amazing and bought the stories to life. You really felt they were telling their own experiences. When we spoke to some of the readers in the break they said that they could feel the emotions of the spirits whose stories they were reading, which was certainly conveyed to us in the audience. Simon, who I had thought may find it all a little boring, actually really enjoyed the evening. Afterwards when we were sitting having a drink in the bar in the hotel he was asking so many questions about spirit. Far more than he ever has in the years we have been together. I believe that the moving and realistic way in which the experiences were bought to life really made his mind open up to the reality of our ongoing lives in our spiritual form. I do hope that one day Susan will make a dvd of these stories so that an even wider audience can experience these for themselves.

I do think that one thing that so many of us find so hard to talk about is physical death. It is a subject that many people avoid as they say it is depressing and also of course many find the whole thing terribly frightening too, which is understandable. It is though, the one thing that we all know for sure will happen to us at some time, yet most of us are totally unprepared for it. We are also unprepared for the death of a loved one. It is almost taboo to talk about such things unless you are talking to an insurance salesman or a solicitor who is drawing up wills.

I know that when my parents and my brother all died within less than four months I wouldn’t have been able to cope without the certainty that their spirits, their souls, still existed. It was largely thanks to Susan and her spiritual communications that I could manage to get through those dark days. I was talking to her after my Dad had died, telling her how very sad I was and how much I missed him. She told me something I will never forget. She said that whilst we are all so upset here for losing someone we love, at the same time there are massive celebrations in the spirit world as that person is being reunited with loved ones who have passed before. She said to imagine that my Dad was on a ship, leaving the shore, waving to me as he went, but when the ship completed its journey, he would reach another shore where his Mum and Dad and his brothers and sisters would be waiting to greet him. I thought of that many times over the years, knowing how pleased Dad would have been to see his family and in particular his twin sister Mary again, knowing how much he missed her throughout his life.

We had a wonderful time back in North Devon. I did manage to walk along my old local beach and enjoyed feeling the warm sand between my toes, breathing in the crisp clear air. We drove down many winding country lanes, shared lovely times with old friends and Simon took some great photographs. What a great mini-break we had, and how delighted I was to have been able to see the Afterlife Monologues. I know the stories and experiences of those spirits will stay with me always.

Simon and I always try to do something different for our birthdays. Over the years amongst other things, I’ve been whisked away for a romantic break to a luxury hotel, we’ve been on the London Eye and Simon has been a racing driver, etc. You get the gist. The whole idea is that our birthdays are memorable events, a special day to mark the beginning of our next year. So, when friends of mine mentioned a Psychic & Spiritual Festival that started on my birthday I thought it would be a unique way to enjoy a get-away and experience the work of mediums that I hadn’t seen before.

As the event was being held right by the coast “Sceptic Simon” agreed to come along, not to attend any workshops or lectures, but to go out and about with his beloved camera taking some landscape shots with his new filters. So, we were two very happy bunnies, full of excitement looking forward to the weekend.

I rang the venue to ask if there was a program as my friends and I wondered if we had to book any of the workshops, but I was told that no-one knows the events until the day they arrive. Goodness, I thought, they must be mega organised! We where aiming to arrive at about 3:30pm and our timing was spot on. We were given the keys to our ‘chalet’ and directions, but as we walked through the car park my heart began to sink when I saw the rows and rows of ‘chalets’ – Hi di Hi couldn’t help but come to mind. Our room was a double …. just … it was so small, and the bathroom was something out of the ark, it was what I would call VERY basic! It was not what I had expected, but then it’s not what you expect that makes life richer!

I was keen to look at the programme and we couldn’t help but laugh when the saw the evening entertainment billed as Scott Paige and his High Octaine Show-Team. Seriously, I felt like we were in a time warp and we had unknowingly been time travelling back to the mid 60’s!

After the disappointment with our chalet we really didn’t expect much of the food, but have to say that it exceeded expectations. The service was great and the food, although plain, was well cooked and we certainly weren’t going to be starving. We were given a table number and had to sit at the same table for the whole time. We were sat opposite two women, Julie and her aunt Sylvia. Julie was a florist by trade, with a very dry sense of humour and a houseful of assorted rescued pets with rather strange names. Sylvia had a very fast mind, was great company and relayed some very amusing spiritually based stories. They were both real characters with great personalities and we felt we were so lucky to sit opposite them.

The first evening there was a medley of mediums demonstrating until 10pm. I hadn’t heard of them before, but I gather they are quite well-known. I must say that the evidence that was brought through by Philip Solomon was amazing. He was giving people not just names and memorable dates but addresses as well. I can’t say I agreed with everything he said about his beliefs on spiritual matters, but he did say that we all have our own views and that we must respect that. I was really pleased because even Sceptic Simon was marginally impressed, and that is quite something!

Simon toddled off on the first morning to go and take some pics and I stayed with my friend Annette as we were working out which lectures or workshops to attend. The problem seemed to be that there were never enough chairs in the rooms and they kept moving who was working where, which is quite confusing when there are about five hundred people all trying to find their way about. I wasn’t too worried about missing any of the workshops as I hadn’t heard of the tutors before, but one person I particularly wanted to see was Jay Love.

I had met Jay several years before, when as students at the Arthur Findlay College in Stanstead we had discussed our spiritual development. So many of our experiences had been shared it was quite uncanny. He struck me then as a real down to earth kind of chap. He was a gentle soul with kind eyes and had a wicked sense of humour. He didn’t take himself too seriously, although it was obvious how much he respected spirit. I had never forgotten him and a few months ago had found him on the internet and we had been in contact via Facebook, where I had learnt that his development had led him to physical mediumship and he was now able to bring through spirit using transfiguration.

For those who don’t know about this form of mediumship, it is when the medium goes into trance and spirits communicate and also temporarily materialise, usually over the mediums face, by utilising a form of energy that it is believed the medium manufactures within themselves. It is rare to be able to see this first hand.

I had desperately wanted to see Jay demonstrate his physical mediumship, but as we arrived at the designated room we were told we would need to bring our own chairs and bluntly told by the lady on the door that she would be locking the door in one minute. This didn’t give us enough time to go and get the chairs so we ended up in another room seeing a lecture about ghost pictures!

Most of Saturday I saw various people do various things, nothing that I found totally astounding, it was ok, but I was deeply disappointed not to have seen Jay. Having said all that though there was certainly a good mixture of differing disciplines for you to take a look at, everything from pure spiritual communication to paranormal investigation to tarot, to sand box readings. The choice was quite amazing.

In the late afternoon Annette and I found ourselves at a bit of a loose end and, almost by accident, found ourselves in a lecture about animal communication, which we weren’t planning to attend. As we walked in there were two pictures on a board. One was a very nice looking cat and the other looked like my old dog Sam. I even said to Annette “goodness, that looks just like Sam”. We sat down and began listening and much to my surprise the lady, who was actually a medium, explained that she had only just drawn the pictures and these two animals wanted to communicate with their owners. It wasn’t at all what I had expected. Several people tried to accept information about the cat, who was a tabby called Tigger, but eventually the information given narrowed it down to one particular lady in the audience and she was given the picture.

Then the medium, Raye Edwina Brown, started to talk about the dog. She said that his name was Sam! My hand shot up immediately. She explained that in his old age his back legs had given way and he had to be put to sleep, but that this happened at home. That was exactly what had happened to Sam. She said it was literally only a few days before he died that this had started, which was true, as Sam’s back legs gave out on a Friday and I called the vet on Monday as he couldn’t stand up. She even gave the date of the year he was born. I was so chuffed. He sent me his love and told me that he was pleased that I had so much freedom in my life now. I was called to the front to collect my picture. I waited until everyone had left and went over to thank Raye and she took a photo of me with the picture of Sam and said she is going to put it in her magazine!

This had made my weekend, I didn’t really expect very much more. I had loved Sam so much and felt so lucky that he had come through. I had given communication from animals to people in readings in the past and had seen their delight, and now I knew exactly how they felt.

The evening was not so good. To me, the mediums were more interested in being entertainers than mediums and I did feel on a few occasions that they were not respectful to either the spirits or the audience. I watched three of them and decided I would rather go back to the cold chalet than sit and watch anymore. I was so annoyed that it was typical that Simon was there, and this did nothing to improve his belief in anything spiritual!

On Sunday I had already decided that I wanted to go home. I was cold, uncomfortable, fed up with all the last-minute changes and to be honest the mediumship the night before had really made me question so much that I felt quite unsettled. I did though want to have the opportunity to see Jay give a demonstration and on the program it stated that he would be in the Lounge giving a mental mediumship and spirit guides talk at 11:30am, so I thought we’d go home after that. Annette and I were heading for the lounge when I saw Jay walking away from there, I stopped him and asked where his lecture was going to be. He told me it was going to be in the Games Room and that there should be enough chairs. So, we headed off there, found Jay, but again no chairs! Annette went out and found some patio chairs to sit on and we sat expecting a mental mediumship talk. We were so lucky as Jay was planning to give another demonstration of his transfiguration gifts. The whole experience was nothing short of phenomenal. Jay gave a really good talk beforehand, quite thought-provoking, and then his trance guide arrived and introduced himself. He was nothing at all like Jay, although he did share a sense of humour. The transfiguration was just mind-blowing. Grown men and women were obviously emotional at communicating with their loved ones in spirit and being able to see their faces materialise over Jay’s face. What an amazing gift he has!

We left just after lunch and were home in the light, turned the heating up and enjoyed sitting on a comfy sofa!

Annette told me that the last night had been the best evening and it had been a shame I had missed it. Jay had demonstrated his mediumship abilities and she said his evidence was brilliant. An Irish medium, Sharon Neill, had given evidence that a member of the audience had waited over fifty years to hear and Annette said everyone in the audience had felt extremely emotional. She told me that Sharon had then finished by singing The Power of Love which she said was sung beautifully. It did seem like I missed out, but then I was needed by a friend first thing this morning, so I was pleased I was at home and able to help her.

It was an interesting weekend with mega highs and too many lows. Am I pleased I went? Yes. Sam coming through and Jay’s demonstration were the highlights of my weekend. Two fantastic experiences that I know I will never forget. Just such a shame that it hadn’t been a little more comfortable and a little more organised!

Although I was used to being aware of spirits around me since I was extremely young, sometimes even catching a glimpse of ‘someone’ or ‘something’, that was usually in my peripheral vision, it wasn’t until I was in my late thirties that I had more of an understanding that there was far more to spiritual communication that just feeling them around me. In a very short time I seemed to go through a massive awakening of what I would eventually call my spiritual vision.

It all happened around the same time that I had met one of my spiritual guides, Minyon, in my first ever spiritual meditation. That in itself was a massive change in my thought patterns. Suddenly I wasn’t thinking that I may be accompanied on my life’s journey by spirit, I absolutely knew that I was. At the same time as meeting Minyon, I also had the first experience of actually asking spirit to come forward and give me evidence from a loved one that I could pass on to a total stranger. This too had happened, and so easily, that again, my beliefs had no alternative but to change. I had gone from believing that spirits could communicate when they had passed from this life into a spirit form, to totally and utterly knowing that they could. I was overwhelmed by the strength of the communication and the difference it had made to my perception of the physical, material world in which we live.

I felt as if I had been asking and asking for real proof of spirit for years. Not anything that be could be a possible coincidence or a lucky guess, but absolute unequivocable proof and I had received it, with the added bonus of meeting Minyon.

I could see him as plain as day in my meditation, and almost felt a bit silly explaining to the circle that he was a native American, I thought they might think I was some kind of nutter. The great thing for me at that time was that I had read very little of anything spiritual and had no pre-conceived ideas of what a spiritual guide may look like. The only guide I had ever really heard of was my Mum’s guide, Topsy, who Mum had told me was a gypsy, so I was more than surprised to see that Minyon was a native American!

We had two large greenhouses in our garden at the time. I was working away pricking out seedlings and placing them in their interim homes, ready for growing on. I had the radio playing, happily singing along, immersed in my thoughts of plans for the summer garden. I was always at my happiest working with plants with my hands in the soil. My Dad had always grown as much as he could from seeds or cuttings and I have the most fantastic memories of sunny spring days with my sister Tina and I helping him on his allotment. We would spend hours deciding what was to be grown and then the day would arrive when it was time to sow. I was so excited knowing that our work would result in the most delicious fruit and vegetables for the whole family, never mind most of the neighbours too! I had always been in awe of the wonder of nature, how a tiny weeny seed could become a magnificent flower, or a towering tree or something as juicy as a melon. I was always fascinated by the way they just decided to grow, to put out roots in the soil and with a little water and tender care, they would blossom.

On this particular day the sun was low in the sky and was shining directly into the greenhouse. I was about the pull the roof blinds over a little when I noticed something very odd. There was a row of tall trees about thirty feet away from where I was and there appeared to be a wide border of golden light surrounding each of them. To begin with I felt sure that it was a ripple in the glass of the greenhouse, but even if I moved around it was still there. Then I thought it was the low sun which was causing some sort of light refraction, but when I walked out of the greenhouse I realised the sun wasn’t on the trees at all. I stood for a while gazing up at them and the border became wider and wider until there was no separation between the trees. It was like a see through bubble of a shiny beautiful golden light. I had never seen anything like it before. As I turned around back towards the main garden I realised that I could see this border around all the plants! Some of them had a much brighter colour than others, some had what seemed to be a slight pinkyness around them too. I was fascinated. The more I looked the more I could see it. I finished my work in the greenhouse and walked back to the house, all the while looking at all the plants, trees and shrubs along the way. Now this does sound strange, but it was almost as if they were smiling at me.

The following day I woke up and was seriously quite shocked to see that the left half of my bedroom was bathed in a pink light. I thought that I must have something wrong with my eyes. I covered my right eye but could still see the half and half bedroom, then I covered my left eye, it was still the same. I got out of bed and went and looked in the mirror in case my eyes were bloodshot. They looked perfectly normal. This half and half lasted for only a couple of minutes and then the room went back to normal. I was beginning to really think that I must have something wrong with my sight. The rest of the day everything looked perfectly standard and I thought it must just be one of those strange things that seemed to be happening to me.

The next morning was even stranger. I woke up and saw that the bedroom ceiling was pink. It was normally white, and so I looked around the room to see if anything could be causing a reflection. Nothing seemed to be able to do that. I kept looking at the ceiling. I stood up and looked up at it, I laid on the bed and looked. No matter what I did it was still pink. I was really getting concerned now and made an appointment to go and see an optician. In all my life I had never experienced anything like it and I was worried that something was seriously wrong with either my brain or my eyes.

I had to wait a few days to go to the appointment and in that time I kept seeing odd glows of pink and also started seeing what I can only describe as small bubbles of blue lights moving across the room. They would appear from nowhere and then just disappear as fast as they had arrived. I wondered if they were ‘floaters’ which is a physical problem with your eyes. I was nervous of being checked over, but also had a sense of relief thinking that they would definitely find something wrong and that it would be fixable. I explained the problem to the optician and she looked rather bemused. She said she had never heard of anything like it, but she would reserve judgement until she had carried out a full examination. After going through all the different steps of the eye test she told me she could find absolutely nothing wrong with my eyes at all, she gave me a ‘crazy lady’ kind of look as I left. I was perplexed to say the least.

Over the next couple of months I saw lights all over the place, sometimes just one or two, often several. I was almost getting used to waking up to find the room was a different colour from when I had gone to bed. I had to assume that it was part of my spiritual development. Laughingly I imagined a team of spiritual decorators working through the night with magical paints that only lasted a few hours!

I went on a mediumship development course at the Arthur Findlay College in Stansted, and met a fellow student, Jay, who was a real character. He had a warm and bubbly personality and was so easy to talk to. I wasn’t in the same class as him but had heard on the grapevine that he was a brilliant medium. We were walking around the garden chatting when he started to tell me about the odd vision problems he had been having. They were exactly the same as mine! It was just wonderful finding someone who had been through the same. He had also gone to the opticians and the doctors and they could find nothing wrong. He also felt he was at the beginning of his more intensive development with spirit. It really seemed far too much of a coincidence.

I hadn’t really spoken to anyone about these odd visual experiences. I was already thought of as rather peculiar by my family and friends and certainly didn’t want to add fuel to the fire, but having spoken to Jay I felt I must find out more. I had begun to meet some wonderful spiritually aware people through the home groups I had started attending and felt safe when talking to them about the many unusual occurrences at that time. They explained that what I was seeing were auras and that all life forms have them. They are an extension of our life force, and the colour of them can indicate how well, how happy, how concerned etc we are. I was amazed that I was able to see them, and so easily too. I was also told that the bubbles of light were most probably a physical manifestation of spiritual energy.

Now when I am aware that spirit is around I often see the small bubbles of blue floating past me. I feel that it is confirmation for me that they are around. I am used to seeing the beautiful golden lights around any kind of plant form and consider that it is a blessing to be able to see their life energy. I am often shown colours when I am working spiritually and have seen colours radiate from healers hands. Sadly though, the spiritual decorators haven’t been around for a while …. it seems that it’s down to me now if I want to re-decorate!

Every New Year’s Eve there is a global feeling of anticipation that changes are afoot. No matter where you are, who you are with or what you are doing, it is almost impossible to miss the dawning of the new year. All around the world there are massive celebrations, huge displays of fireworks, parties arranged and a feeling of camaraderie that only exists for maybe even just a few minutes either side of midnight. If you are in a large city or even at a local event, complete strangers may well hug and kiss and you and wish you a happy new year.

And then, the morning arrives, and all is back to normal. What happened to the optimism of the night before? Where has the camaraderie gone? Is there any perceivable change in your life from yesterday?

No other species on our planet celebrates New Year. I’ve never seen sheep dancing in a field at midnight! So why do we feel the need to make such a big deal out of a change of year in our calendars? Is it that we have an intrinsic need to focus on the possibility of change for good? Is it that we are dissatisfied with our lives and want a better future? Why is there such a negative spin in our news through most of the year, and maybe just a glimmer of positivity on New Year’s Eve? Why do we look forward to the New Year rather than spend time celebrating the year we have just had? How many people will look back at the year that is coming to a close and be thankful for the experiences they have enjoyed, the spiritual advances they have made, the new friendships formed, the new lives that have begun, the understanding and compassion that has been shown to them, or they have shown to others? It always feels to me that it’s all about looking forward to the new and getting rid of the past. What a shame.

I just read a wonderful blog written by a woman who has been making huge changes to her life. About accepting that she didn’t have to be superwoman after all, that she can feel free to follow her dreams. I felt that this arrived in my inbox at just the right time to be included in this end of year posting. She importantly mentioned the notion of ‘having it all’ and as I commented on her post, I thought long and hard about that well used phrase. Why can’t we have it all, I wondered? But, most importantly, we first have to qualify what having it all truly means to each of us individually. It will be different for each and every one of us. None of us have to adhere to the classic examples portrayed in the media, to the general consensus, to society’s view of what this phrase means. No, we can take it and shape it to suit us.

My interpretation of having it all had to change drastically when I became chronically ill, when my life had no option but to become smaller. Suddenly, having it all had to alter to fit in with my physical capabilities. My expectations had to change. It took a long time to adjust, but now I can say I truly feel fulfilled, feel loved, respected and accepted. I am true to my beliefs, to my spiritual goals, to my souls desires. That to me is having it all. I don’t try to be something I’m not and hope that I don’t expect that of others. My days of trying to be superwoman are long gone!

Instead of only focussing on what the New Year may bring to our lives, just on New Year’s Eve, why not think of every new day as the dawning of a new year. Feel the optimism and the camaraderie with others throughout the year. Consider what we, those we love and those who are in need, really require, and try to work towards that. When we go to sleep at night remember to thank spirit for the positives we can take from the day and ask what our expectations and intentions should be for tomorrow. Look at our lives and learn from our experiences. Feel if we have managed, in our own way, to have it all, even just for that one day. Sense if we have inspired others and if we have been at all instrumental in them finding fulfilment in their lives.

Many people spend much time in thought and then make long lists of resolutions for the new year. Maybe they find that the list will motivate them to bring about change in their lives. Maybe their resolution list is in fact more of a wish list. How many of us have written this list and targeted massive changes that are due to take place from 1st January only to give up within a matter of days or even a couple of weeks? The resolutions soon become forgotten.

So, for this change of year, as the clock passes midnight, and 2011 becomes 2012, I am not going to make a resolution. I am instead going to make a promise to spirit. I will promise to treat each day as a new dawn knowing it has the spiritual potential for the greatest of expectations.

WordPress have this wonderful idea – Post a Blog a Day! They even give you a nice little intro that you can copy and post to your blog – but of course, when I tried, it refused to paste, so here is my version:

Having weaved my way around the WordPress site, trying to glean tips for the a new blogger, I somehow came across what is termed The Daily Post. Its is full of inspiring ideas to help us bloggers blog a little more. To begin with we have to add widgets and tags and things, some of which I find more than a little formidable. I have read, re-read and read again the easy to use instructions, and as the intelligent woman I still try to consider I am, I find I am still none the wiser.

I have, as instructed, pointed my mouse at the widget picture and clicked and then gone backwards and forwards to my blog ‘dashboard’ (that’s the technical word for the technical background bit of my blog, a bit like an engine for a car) and clicked here and there and have still found I haven’t got the widget I need. It’s so much like my car, I know where the pedals are and the steering wheel, but put me under the bonnet and I have no idea what is what! I have learnt more about tags in the last couple of weeks, but I’m not quite sure of the difference between a tag and a category, so I always end up with a mixture of the two. My ever helpful husband, advised me to keep a list of tags and categories on my desktop so that it would be easy for me to find for future use. Hmmm, I’m sure it would be if I knew where on earth my computer had saved them. I’ve made several lists of tags and categories now and can never find them again. There must be a mass of lists somewhere in my laptop that I’m sure one day will come to light, but for the moment at least they are very much hidden.

So, to get back to this wonderful innovative idea of ‘post a blog a day’. The challenge is to find inspiration from ideas that the Daily Post will give us bloggers, and then be able to write about it. To me it sounds very much like a class I took with the Accolade Academy in Margam, Wales, with the most wonderful spiritual tutor, Tony Stockwell.

He had the bright idea that each of us would choose a random word and then someone in the class would have to talk about it for at least five minutes. You couldn’t prepare this talk, or do any kind of background research, it had to be totally off the cuff and ideally inspired by spirit. We all had to have a go, and I must say it was good fun once you get over the ‘I’m sounding like a total idiot’ phase. The problem was, that unknown to us students, Tony was walking around the class listening in and was deciding who he would choose to demonstrate inspired speaking to the whole course on the final night. He walked up to me with a big smile on his face and told me I was going to be one of his chosen students! It was more than a little daunting, he told us that we could talk about absolutely any word at all, for at least five minutes.

The other classes on the course also had students that had been chosen by their tutors and the evening before the ‘performance’ I could see everyone busily writing notes and discussing their ideas. I thought I must have the wrong idea, because I had not prepared anything at all. I guessed that if it was supposed to be inspired then you should leave it to spirit and trust them to inspire you. I went to bed that night concerned that maybe I should have spent the evening in preparation instead of chatting socially with friends. I spoke to Tony the next morning and asked him if I had got it wrong. He laughed and said, no, it was supposed to be inspired and no preparation was necessary.

In a way that sounded too easy and too terrifying all at the same time. The whole day my tummy was full of butterflies, not gently fluttering away, no, these butterflies had boots on and were stampeding around, and I was dreading the moment I would be called to talk. As we all took our seats I thought that I would feel better once I had seen a few others give their talks, but little did I know that I was to be called up first! Looking back though it is a bit like having a dentists appointment first thing in the morning. You get it over and done with and can then get on with enjoying your day.

I had been visibly shaking at the thought of standing up in front of all these people, my stomach was churning, my mouth was dry and my palms were sweaty. Amazingly as soon as my name was called and I walked to the front, a feeling of calm came over me. I still had no idea what I was going to talk about. There was a stand by the side of me with a description of all that Accolade Academy offers its students. “Understanding your Awareness”, was one of the phrases that caught my eye. Suddenly I was off, chatting about awareness. I don’t know how long I spoke for, and to be honest I can barely remember what I said, but I did feel it flowed and was certainly inspired. Phew, was I pleased when I could sit down.

So, I am going to try to approach this ‘blog a day’ challenge in exactly the same way. All I have to do is trust that spirit will inspire me …. they have never let me down yet!